Young Professor of Sino-Vietnamese HistoryHue-Tam Ho Tai, who taught the large courseHistorical Study B-68, "America and Vietnam:1945-1975" this spring, says students can beshort-changed by TFs found at the last minute.

"I don't think it's good for students to haveTFs who have just been added on at the last minutewithout training," Tai says. "There's apossibility that people who have a certaininterest in teaching particular courses havealready signed up. You may have to go and try toget any teaching fellow at all."

Enrollment lower than a professor expected canalso be a problem, says Gleason Professor of FineArts Neil Levine, who taught the large courseLiterature and Arts B-33, "Frank Lloyd Wright,"this spring.

"You always have [TFs] in mind, even though youcan't firmly pin them down and say that this isgoing to work," Levine says. "I've always beencareful not to give people any hope."

Teaching fellows themselves say thatpreregistration would give them security and allowthem to plan classes in advance.

"As a person who relies on teaching jobs forpaying my rent, [preregistration] would create thepossibility for more stability and security andplanning," says Lida Junghans, a seventh-yearanthropology student who was a TF for ForeignCultures 62, "Chinese Family, Marriage andKinship," in 1993-94.

The Numbers

One key question administrators and professorshave about preregistration is whether the numberof students who sign up for a class in the springwill match the number who show up in the fall.

"It would be useful to know the administrativecosts and the number of changes that would affectthe enrollments in a course, whether it was peoplepassing in and out or whether it was major up anddown swings," Council member Damon says.

The Council left its last discussion aboutpreregistration with a decision to investigatethat topic. The exploration process will likelyinclude the offices of the dean of undergraduateeducation, the registrar and the dean of theCollege, according to Council Secretary Fox.

The costs, Registrar Herschbach says, woulddepend upon the form of preregistration.

"If the Faculty decides to adopt apreregistration system and to do this in a timeafter we have developed our electronic capabilityto handle it online, the costs obviously would bemuch lower they would be if we were to institute apaper system now."

Dartmouth uses an on-line system ofpreregistration.

At other schools, the numbers of studentsusually stay the same, but the students themselvesmay have changed, Herschbach says.

"It's impossible to know in advance howaccurate those numbers would be," Herschbach says."In similar institutions, preregistration numbersare pretty good predictors of the final totalenrollment, but the particular individualsenrolled are usually quite different from thosethat enrolled in the preregistration."